Education ministry clarifies on new curriculum grading

Students of Uganda's new lower secondary school curriculum are: confident, communicate better and can ably apply the acquired knowledge, skills and attitudes, officials at the ministry of education have reported. 

According to Peter Ogwang, the Minister of State for Education and Sports, the students can apply the acquired knowledge in real-life situations rather than just memorizing information for examinations.

“The curriculum also focuses on measuring practical proficiency and the ability to solve problems rather than simply recalling facts,” he said on Thursday while addressing Parliament.

The Minister was in Parliament to present a Statement on the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) grading system under the new curriculum.

The previous system was based on content assessment while the new system is based on competence-based assessment, he said.

The results released last week indicated that 350,146 students passed the 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams, which is 98% of the total number of students examined.

The results are reported by achievement levels indicated by letter grades A, B, C, D, and E. 

According to the examination body, candidates who achieved a competency level of at least Grade D in any one subject qualified for the UCE certificate. 

Responding to queries raised by legislators last week, Ogwang stated that the shift from the old system of grading to the new system was warranted by the changes in curriculum requirements. 

The shadow Minister for Education and Sports, Gonzaga Ssewungu making his remarks on UNEB the grading system under the new curriculum on Thursday in Parliament.

The Ministry of Education rolled out the competence-based curriculum for the lower secondary school level in 2020, presenting a need for assessment reforms that introduced new components of Continuous Assessment (CA) and project work on top of the existing end-of-cycle examinations, he said.

He said that the new assessment comes with a change in the reporting, grading and certification.

“The UNEB in close consultation with the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), came up with a reporting mechanism that presents a learner's level of achievement in each subject with a letter grade (A, B, C, D or E). This was approved by the Ministry of Education and Sports,” he said.

Additionally, he highlighted that the project work is assessed at school and the achievement level, which reveals a learner's creative competency in dealing with actual and contemporary world problems, presented as a stand-alone on the certificate.

The overall score is constituted by the achievement at the school level (20 percent) and end-of-cycle examination scores (80 percent).

In the grading, the Minister said, learners were awarded A - exceptional; B - outstanding; C - satisfactory; D - basic or E - elementary.

The shadow Minister for Education and Sports, Ssewungu Gonzaga, requested the Speaker to allow the Opposition to respond to the statement on Tuesday next week.